Ribbon Placement:

Office of Readings for Tuesday in Ordinary Time

God, come to my assistance.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

HYMN

O God, our help in ages past,

Beneath the shadow of Your throne

Before the hills in order stood,

A thousand ages in your sight

Time, like an ever rolling stream,

O God, our help in ages past,

PSALMODY

Ant. 1 The Lord is just; he will defend the poor.

Psalm 10

I

Lord, why do you stand afar off

For the wicked man boasts of his heart’s desires;

His path is ever untroubled;

His mouth is full of cursing, guile, oppression,

His eyes are on the watch for the helpless man.

He crouches, preparing to spring,

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

Ant. The Lord is just; he will defend the poor.

Ant. 2 Lord, you know the burden of my sorrow.

II

Arise then, Lord, lift up your hand!

But you have seen the trouble and sorrow,

Break the power of the wicked and the sinner!

Lord, you hear the prayer of the poor;

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

Psalm-prayer

Rise up, Lord, in defense of your people; do not hide your face from our troubles. Father of orphans, wealth of the poor, we rejoice in making you known; may we find comfort and security in times of pain and anxiety.

Ant. Lord, you know the burden of my sorrow.

Ant. 3 The words of the Lord are true, like silver from the furnace.

Psalm 12

Help, O Lord, for good men have vanished:

May the Lord destroy all lying lips,

“For the poor who are oppressed and the needy who groan

The words of the Lord are words without alloy,

It is you, O Lord, who will take us in your care

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

Psalm-prayer

Your light is true light, Lord, and your truth shines like the day. Direct us to salvation through your life-giving words. May we be saved by always embracing your word.

Ant. The words of the Lord are true, like silver from the furnace.

Sacred Silence (indicated by a bell) – a moment to reflect and receive in our hearts the full resonance of the voice of the Holy Spirit and to unite our personal prayer more closely with the word of God and public voice of the Church.

The Lord teaches the humble his way.

READINGS

First reading

When Mordecai learned that the Jewish people were to be destroyed, he tore his garments, put on sackcloth and ashes, and walked through the city crying out loudly and bitterly, till he came before the royal gate, which no one clothed in sackcloth might enter. (Likewise in each of the provinces, wherever the king’s legal enactment reached, the Jews went into deep mourning, with fasting, weeping, and lament; they all slept on sackcloth and ashes.)

Queen Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her. Overwhelmed with anguish, she sent garments for Mordecai to put on, so that he might take off his sackcloth; but he refused.

Esther then summoned Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs whom he had placed at her service, and commanded him to find out what this action of Mordecai meant and the reason for it. So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the public square in front of the royal gate, and Mordecai told him all that had happened, as well as the exact amount of silver Haman had promised to pay to the royal treasury for the slaughter of the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the written decree for their destruction which had been promulgated in Susa, to show and explain to Esther. He was to instruct her to go to the king; she was to plead and intercede with him on behalf of her people.

“Remember the days of your lowly estate,” Mordecai had him say, “when you were brought up in my charge; for Haman, who is second to the king, has asked for our death. Invoke the Lord and speak to the king for us: save us from death.”

Hathach returned to Esther and told her what Mordecai had said. Then Esther replied to Hathach and gave him this message for Mordecai: “All the servants of the king and the people of his provinces know that any man or woman who goes to the king in the inner court without being summoned, suffers the automatic penalty of death, unless the king extends to him the golden scepter, thus sparing his life. Now as for me, I have not been summoned to the king for thirty days.”

When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, he had this reply brought to her: “Do not imagine that because you are in the king’s palace, you alone of all the Jews will escape. Even if you now remain silent, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another source; but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows but that it was for a time like this that you obtained the royal dignity?” Esther sent back to Mordecai the response: “Go and assemble all the Jews who are in Susa; fast on my behalf, all of you, not eating or drinking, night or day, for three days. I and my maids will also fast in the same way. Thus prepared, I will go to the king, contrary to the law. If I perish, I perish!” Mordecai went away and did exactly as Esther had commanded.

RESPONSORY See Esther 14:14; Tobit 3:13; Judith 6:19

I have never trusted in anyone but you, O God of Israel;

Lord, God of heaven and earth, have pity on the humiliation of our people.

Second reading

We need to use words so that we may remind ourselves to consider carefully what we are asking, not so that we may think we can instruct the Lord or prevail on him.

Thus, when we say: Hallowed be your name, we are reminding ourselves to desire that his name, which in fact is always holy, should also be considered holy among men. I mean that it should not be held in contempt. But this is a help for men, not for God.

And as for our saying: Your kingdom come, it will surely come whether we will it or not. But we are stirring up our desires for the kingdom so that it can come to us and we can deserve to reign there.

When we say: Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are asking him to make us obedient so that his will may be done in us as it is done in heaven by his angels.

When we say: Give us this day our daily bread, in saying this day we mean “in this world.” Here we ask for a sufficiency by specifying the most important part of it; that is, we use the word “bread” to stand for everything. Or else we are asking for the sacrament of the faithful, which is necessary in this world, not to gain temporal happiness but to gain the happiness that is everlasting.

When we say: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, we are reminding ourselves of what we must ask and what we must do in order to be worthy in turn to receive.

When we say: Lead us not into temptation, we are reminding ourselves to ask that his help may not depart from us; otherwise we could be seduced and consent to some temptation, or despair and yield to it.

When we say: Deliver us from evil, we are reminding ourselves to reflect on the fact that we do not yet enjoy the state of blessedness in which we shall suffer no evil. This is the final petition contained in the Lord’s Prayer, and it has a wide application. In this petition the Christian can utter his cries of sorrow, in it he can shed his tears, and through it he can begin, continue and conclude his prayer, whatever the distress in which he finds himself. Yes, it was very appropriate that all these truths should be entrusted to us to remember in these very words.

Whatever be the other words we may prefer to say (words which the one praying chooses so that his disposition may become clearer to himself or which he simply adopts so that his disposition may be intensified), we say nothing that is not contained in the Lord’s Prayer, provided of course we are praying in a correct and proper way. But if anyone says something which is incompatible with this prayer of the Gospel, he is praying in the flesh, even if he is not praying sinfully. And yet I do not know how this could be termed anything but sinful, since those who are born again through the Spirit ought to pray only in the Spirit.

RESPONSORY 2 Maccabees 1:5,3

May the Lord hear your prayers

May he give to all of you a heart

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Almighty ever-living God,

ACCLAMATION (at least in the communal celebration)

Let us praise the Lord.